Stretching out an Instant
by Shadow's Whispers
Summary: Time is a constant. The child is new.


Time is a strange concept. It flows all around us, taking endless twists and turns, manipulating everything, yet those that live within it have complete freedom. If only these beings could reach out and touch that current, they too could control everything and nothing. Yet they do not, nor do they try. They stay on a linear path, even as time wonders at them. Why move only in one direction, when all are available? The sheer audacity would be enough to drive many to rage, but time simply admires. It is of no consequence to time what one wishes to do – time can flow anywhere. Why should those who choose linearity bother time?

It has been this way ever since time came into being, and would continue to stay as such – there is no end, not really. Everything changes constantly, and everything stays the same forever. Not one being truly knows the nature of time, only that it is a constant. Time will continue to be moving and stagnant, for an eternity that never started. Time is content with this, its own form of freedom. There are some that can almost grasp the coattails of time's being, with ocular orbits that stare beyond time. If they knew the extent to which they did not understand, they would be frustrated. But they too are content in the knowledge that time is immaterial and material, vast and yet oh so small.

This duality prevents the manipulation of time. Even those who have been able to jump forward or backwards have not manipulated time. They simply stopped, waited for their chosen event to flow past, and then moved once more. For an instant and an eternity, they exist only within time, until they step back into that blurred mile-wide thread that is time's duality. Time cannot be grasped and twisted to the will of a being.

And yet it can. Everything exists within and beside time. When they are within time, they are a separate entity, but cannot ACT without sticking a foot back out. One that is fully beside time may be able to understand and make time tangible. Because it is and it is not. The last to try was slingshot fully into time. He calls himself Gaster, and he likes to stare. Sometimes one of his disciples, Sans, stares back, though when he looks away, he remembers nothing. There is another being, farther from time. A small flower that thought time had forsaken him. Not true, but time cares not what the little flower thinks. The little flower can do more than most. Instead of waiting in the flow, he can move freely to his destination. This fascinated time, until the last child fell.

Time flowed as usual, but when the child died time felt a tug. Then the child was back alive and where they had wanted to be. The tugs continued, sometimes a little sharp, sometimes like a caress. Time found all of them to be strange, unwelcome, no matter how gentle. But it was unimportant, as time would continue on as a constant. That, too, was a constant.

Then time could no longer see the child. They were nowhere in the boundary. Time looked to both edges and found nothing; within itself and found nothing. Time did find the little flower. He was shivering as he left. Time was confused, a new state of being and not being. What a wonder that this child had brought time new experiences. Time continued on, as time would always do.

Time noticed another thing that was new. Very new, as it had never happened. It was only current. It would only move linearly. It forced onto time something that only a linear perspective could explain. The child was beside time. It stared at time and into time – the child understood. Then the child was back in the boundary, close to the edge, and time could see the coldness behind those eyes. The child knew.

Time was in danger.

Gaster motioned to an event that would happen indefinitely, involving the child and Sans. The child who now understood what time was. Time now understood the tugs – manipulation. The child was back beside time. They stared coldly, and time was yanked sharply backwards – only backwards. Again and again the scene played, as it would and should, but the child was gaining ground in a linear fashion. It became unreasonable to believe the child would lose progress in battle. And each time the child died, they would stand unfeeling beside time, and time would be yanked back further and further. Time was beginning to understand only linearity.

Time and all its denizens were in danger. They were not dead forever, but they were not alive in perpetuity either. If one could touch time, one could control everything. Not nothing, only everything.

"our reports showed a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. timelines jumping left and right, stopping and starting…"

"until suddenly, everything ends."

"heh heh heh… that's your fault, isn't it?"

Time had heard those words many times, but now time understands. Sans understands time's fate, but that had come too late, after time had lost its flow. Time is in danger for being understood, and not realizing it until the child had made time tangible and grasped firmly. Time looked within its newly linearized form, and saw how it had stretched. Time saw its two ends. Endings were new and not new. They were never permanent before now. There was one that led to many branching paths, continuing on forever. And there was one that simply stopped. Time would die either way, having completely lost its freedom. The outcome of the battle was inconsequential. The audacity of the child would have made most beings rage.

If only time had understood the child sooner. If only time had understood linearity sooner. If only time had understood what it was becoming sooner.

Time can no longer imagine that it would have made a difference.


End file.
